You're a hardcore feminist I swear!

I never considered myself a feminist.  I would have classified myself as an egalitarian.  As Valenti explains, the word feminist carries this negative connotation.  Until reading this article, I would have agreed with that.  I envisioned feminists as intensely man-hating women.  I have always believed that we are equal partners and would not want to degrade the male race because that would be hypocritical.  However, my definition of feminism was incorrect as I learned in this article.  She defined feminism as the movement around the belief in social, political, and economic equality.  I agree with that 100%.  So I guess that makes me a hard-core feminist.  

Something that struck me in this article was that the worst thing to call someone is a woman.  I had never thought about it, but that is a valid point.  It’s the 21^st century.  We should be equals.  However, the most offensive thing one can say degrades women.  How can this be?  Being labeled as a slut, whore, etc, is typical for most women, but when a man partakes in these same activities, he receives accolade.  How do we change this behavior?  We need to change everyone’s mindset.  We are so accustomed to putting women down that we don’t even realize we are doing it anymore.  I hear girls call each other these names as jokes.  It’s not funny when you think about it.  We are just feeding into this derogatory world. 

The section titled, “Things are fine the way they are,” reminded me of my trip to Armenia.  Most of the women there were content with the lack of rights that they had.  With rights comes responsibility.  They preferred not bearing those responsibilities.  I think that they are so accustomed to this way of life that change is frightening to them. Yes, with rights comes responsibility, but some of the most responsible people are the women we know.

Conclusively, feminists should be looked at with respect. We are willing to accept the responsibilities of the rights we are fighting for.  We are willing to be labeled for a cause that we are passionate about.  Perhaps society demeans feminism because many fear this equality.  This knowledge should spark even more women to step up and demand equality.